July 11, 2016, 04:58 pm

America, the black, the white, the beautiful



Used fireworks still litter the streets. The barbecue grills are still cooling off. Parade floats, banners and signs are now neatly stowed away. But the national birthday, a day when the red, white and blue brings the country together to celebrate freedom and independence, is now a faint memory.

The nation woke up from its birthday hangover to horrific images of black men violently killed at the hands of white (and Asian) police officers in two states, in two separate regions of the nation, by vastly different police jurisdictions.

Though separated by hundreds of miles, the jarring and shocking deaths inflicted by white law enforcement officers unified many — especially the African-American community — in their collective outrage, distress and confusion.

In Louisiana, video footage by a bystander showed Baton Rouge, Louisiana officers violently wrestle Alton Sterling, 37, to the ground and open fire point-blank into his body while Sterling lay on the ground.

Less than 48 hours later outside Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria worker, was shot four times in his vehicle by (what Castile's girlfriend described as) an Asian police officer. All while she and her 4-year-old daughter looked on in horror.

As if this powder keg weren't toxic enough, 12 Dallas police officers were shot, leaving five dead, after a peaceful protest demonstrating against those two cop-involved shootings.

The Fourth of July brought the country together to revel in all things that unites us as Americans.

Just three days later, the body count was on the rise with deaths to civilians and law enforcement, and the nation is on the precipice of real division. Anger, hate, race and fear are tearing at the very fabric holding the nation together. Shouts of "black lives matter" are matched by screams of "all lives matter" and now yells of "blue lives matter" join the chorus of disharmony and discord ringing throughout the national lexicon.

It is making everyone want to holler and through all the noise, no one is being heard. The pain of those grieving the loss of life goes unheard. The fear and difficulty that encapsulates those sworn to protect and serve is routinely diminished. The racial divide that continues to separate black, white, brown and yellow grows wider with each passing incident.

But now wait a minute, I'm talking about America, sweet America ...

Yes, America is all that anyone is talking about. The shining beacon on the hill. The nation that only eight years ago elected Barack Hussein Obama as its first African-American president. The nation that later this month will officially nominate its first woman to lead a major party as a candidate for president. Yet it is also the same America that will nominate a man to lead a major party that wishes to ban all Muslims from entering the country and build a wall to keep Mexicans from entering. It is the same America that for many, "hands up, don't shoot," is not just a slogan, but a way of life.

America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm they soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

Thy liberty was on display in Sandra Bland's vocal and demonstrative resistance to the law on that fateful day in Texas. Thy liberty was on display in Eric Gardner's forthrightness and rejection of continued harassment by police in New York.

Thy liberty was violently suffocated and destroyed for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Thy liberty allowed 12 police officers to cloak themselves in law, confronting evil that took five of their lives. And today, in the wake of another glorious celebration of a nation's ideals and guiding principles, the majesty and regality that girds the soul of a nation hangs in the balance.

And crown they good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

The fireworks and celebratory revelry have given way to simmering rage and visceral demonstrations protesting the death of the voiceless; the annihilation of the helpless; and the extermination of the powerless.

The very construct of the state hangs in the balance and brotherhoods of every stripe, hue, identity and ideology have chosen a side. The wounds are deep and the pain is real. Luckily, America has experienced this before and each time it has somehow pulled itself from the brink of the abyss.

Now, she must do it again: shake off the hangover and heal thyself. Acknowledge the wounds of resentment; look at the scars of division and embrace yourself, America. You are more than black or white; you are beautiful.

Ham is a national security and political analyst who worked for the U.S. Senate on foreign relations and armed services policy. He chairs the Fragile State Strategy Group in Washington and is coauthor of "S.O.S.: A U.S. Strategy of Statebuilding." Follow him @EKH2016.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blo...-the-beautiful